Through Thick and Thin
by shadowwhisper123
Summary: A story about Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, and Gladiolus in their childhoods. And how they got through their first terrible ordeal together and their friendship became stronger.
1. Chapter 1

A blond-haired, freckle-spattered boy was crouched in the shade of a tall tree. The tree was one out of the thousands in Lucis's Sylva Park. He was grateful for the shade. The summertime had come and the sun was at the height of its strength. The air felt so thick and heavy he bet that he could have sucked the moisture out of it with a straw. If he had the right straw.

Was there a straw like that? He bet there was. Ignis would know. He had wanted to hang out with him today, too, but he was "too busy with school." It sounded like cruel and unusual punishment to him, but his bespectacled friend told him he didn't mind at all. He loved school and it was part of his "duty to Lucis." He could understand that, sure, but during the summer? Everyone should have had a break, right? At least Gladio and Noct agreed with him on that front. Speaking of those two…

He looked up again. No sign of them. He knocked his head back against the bark in exasperation. "Where the heck are they?!" He picked up his phone and sent another text message: "WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?! I'm going crazy here! (XoX)"

The reply he got was from Gladio. "Keep your shirt on, Prompto. We're almost there."

He crossed his arms and scrunched up his face. They had better be…

Not too far from the park, two other boys were walking side by side towards a convenience store. The taller of the two was carrying a dark red backpack. He glanced over at his younger companion when he heard him laughing at something under his breath.

"Noct? What's so funny?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just imagining the look on Prompto's face after we pelt him with water balloons."

"Heh, heh. I mean, we definitely owe him one after he got you to stick your tongue on the lightpost a month ago, right?"

Noctis cracked a devilish grin. "Right. And after he pushed you in the pool."

Gladiolus's eyes narrowed. "Ohhh, yeah."

It wasn't until they got to the store that they noticed the "**No bags allowed inside**" sign on the door.

"We'll just have to make this quick," Gladio reasoned. After all, there was only one other car in the parking lot and no other pedestrians around. He slid the bag off his back after withdrawing his small wallet and laid it against the brick wall of the store and the two friends went inside to buy a bag of water balloons. When they came out again, they spotted a public restroom near some vending machines across the parking lot. "C'mon, we can fill them up in there and then we'll meet up with Prompto."

"Sounds good," Noctis replied. It was until they had gotten almost the entire way across the gray expanse of asphalt that he realized they had forgotten the red backpack.

"Uh-oh. Gladio, you wait here, I'll go get it." The prince took off running.

"Hey-wait! Noct, wait! Slow down!" Gladio hurried after him, but sprinting had never been his strong suit, especially against someone as quick as Noctis.

"Huh?" To Noct's confusion, he saw that Gladio's backpack had been laid against a parked car while they weren't looking. "What's it doing there?" But he gave it no other thought as he kept running towards it, leaning down, arm outstretched.

All of a sudden, the door to the back seat of the suspicious car flew open and Noctis Lucis Caelum felt two large, burly arms close around him like the coils of a boa constrictor. "Gotcha!"

He screamed as he heard Gladio gasp in horror and looked wide-eyed back at him before a meaty hand clamped tightly over his mouth, squeezing it so painfully hard he couldn't even try biting him. The captor tossed Noctis inside the car, pulled a stun gun out from the pocket of his leather vest, seized the small boy by the arm and pressed the metal probes into his torso, shocking him before he could try to scramble his way out the other side, evoking another terrified scream from his victim. Next, he slammed the door shut. "Floor it! Let's get out of here!"

His accomplice, the driver, took the cue and the car zoomed forward as if it had been shot out of a cannon.

"STOP!" Gladio raced behind the car as fast as his legs could carry him, feeling as though he was inhaling in a mouthful of needles into his labored lungs with every breath he took. "COME BACK! **LET HIM GO!**"

The young guardian shouted for help and followed the car into the narrow back road, even as his legs shook beneath him and turned into melted jelly. He felt a dip in the ground and he tripped as his ankle twisted and he landed face down in a pothole, seeing stars. When Gladiolus Amicitia looked up and regained his vision, the car had completely vanished out of sight. He burst into tears.


	2. Chapter 2

Prompto Argentum was lying against the same tree and was snoring as drool leaked out of his open mouth.

"Come on, you lazy bum. Wake up." Ignis Stupeo Scientia picked up a stick he saw lying on the ground and poked Prompto in the stomach with it.

"Wha-Ow! Why?!" Prompto jumped up and looked around. Ignis cleared his throat.

"What was that for, you big jerk?"

The bespectacled boy rolled his eyes. "Oh, like _you_ wouldn't have done the same thing if you were me."

"I guess not. Anyway, what are you doing here, four-eyes? I thought you were too busy being an egghead to come hang out with us."

"It turns out I didn't have too much homework. So I thought I'd see what you all were up to."

"Well, I've been waiting FOREVER for Noct and Gladio to show up here so we could have some fun, but I guess they ditched me. Hmph." Prompto turned away, but Ignis could hear the hurt in his voice.

He frowned. "Prompto, I really don't think that Noct and Gladiolus would do something as mean as that. Maybe something bad happened. Let me try calling him."

King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII remembered the days of his own youth, how much he enjoyed the freedom of the warmest days of the year. During peaceful times, his own father had let him have fun with his friends, and he wanted Noctis to know the same kind of joy. Even if it was against his better judgment to let someone like him get a taste of the liberty enjoyed by someone without royal blood. Hopefully soon he himself would have a chance for a rest from the endless meetings, hearings, and delegations as well and enjoy the summer himself before it slipped away. A look out the window revealed that it had started to rain.

"Your Majesty? Sir? What's your decision?"

"Hm? Oh, excuse me. I-"

"Your Majesty!"

One of the palace maids had opened the door to the meeting room and stood in the entryway.

"What are you doing here? Get out!" One of the King's advisers spat.

"F-f-forgive me…But I-I must speak with His Majesty immediately!"

Regis would have told her to leave as well, but he could see that she had turned pale as a ghost. She had something that she thought the king desperately needed to know. He got up out of his chair and motioned for his angered associate to sit down.

"…Tabitha, is it? What's the matter?"

She looked down. "I'm afraid I have horrible news…"

Regis strode closer to her. "Well? What is it?"

"Prince Noctis…He's been…_kidnapped_…"

The king's heart skipped a beat and his jaw dropped. His eyes turned black as coal. "_**What?!**_" He gripped her upper arm. "Is this some kind of sick joke?!"

Just then, the door behind Tabitha opened to reveal the boy who was his bodyguard-in-training and the heir to House Amicitia. His face was flushed and his eyes were red and swollen. And he had shifted all of his weight to one leg.

Gladio shook his head and tried to speak, but no words came. Regis unleashed his grip and bent down to grasp hold of his shoulders. "What. Happened."

"You simpering little idiot!" Lord Amicitia seized his son by the collar and slapped hard him on the ear.

"I-I'm sorry, Father-"

"Your duty is to the prince! HOW COULD YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN, YOU-"

Regis seized his own bodyguard's wrist before he could strike Gladio again. "Securis, enough. That's not helping anything."

"I'm sorry!" Gladio fell forward on his knees. "I'm really, really sorry! I know! I know it's all my fault!" he sobbed.

Tabitha helped Gladio to his feet and tried to soothe him, but to no avail. In spite of his own anger and fear, Regis couldn't help but pity the child in front of him.

"Then you must tell us everything you saw."

"There you are!"

"Why didn't you and Noct come to the park like you were supposed to?" Ignis and Prompto had snuck their way inside and found their way to their distraught friend, who was seated outside the main conference room, an untouched glass of juice next to the table where he sat. Normally he would have sheepishly given them an answer, but his eyes were downcast and his entire body appeared limp and weak. "Hey…What's eating you?"

Gladio didn't return their stares. "Guys, Noct's been captured."

The other boys gasped in unison. "But, Gladio, you were with him!" Ignis cried.

"I know! I'm sorry!" Gladio covered his face with his hands.

"Oh my gosh…Is Noct gonna be okay?" Prompto stammered. "Did he get hurt? Are they gonna kill him?"

"I don't know…"

Ignis put one hand on each of their shoulders. "Listen, I think that they would have done that already if that was their goal. However, we can't rule out that possibility entirely. Gladio, tell us everything you know, okay? Maybe we can help."

The bodyguard-in-training repeated his story.

"Gladio, did you see the license plate on the car? Or did you get a picture of it?"

"No, I wish I had, though. Actually, come to think of it, I'm not sure it had a license plate at all."

"Did Noct have his phone with him?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Prompto snapped his fingers. "Bingo! Then that means we can track him with that, right?"

"Maybe. Just maybe. In any case, I think it's worth a try."

"Then let's go tell the grown-ups to-" Prompto headed for the conference room before Ignis stopped him.

"No. They won't want us to bother them right now."

Ignis sat down on the leather sofa next to Gladio and pulled his own laptop out of his shoulder bag. "Let's see what I can do here…"

The volts from the stun gun had robbed Noctis's brain of the ability to communicate with his muscles. Thus he was rendered powerless against the crook who made quick work of tying ropes around his ankles, knees, thighs, wrists, and upper arms.

"Don't cha think that's a little much for a kid?" The driver asked him.

"The boss said that we don't know how much of his father he has in him and to be extra careful. And that's what I'm doin'." He accentuated this with another sharp yank on the rope that bound the prince's upper arms, ensuring that it dug deeply into his flesh, enough to cause even more pain if he tried to struggle.

Noctis could barely breathe. His chest was heaving, but his mouth had been sealed shut by duct tape. He tried to lift his head up high enough to peek out the window and see where they were going, but his captor's hand pressed down against his skull with all his might, as if he were trying to crush it into pieces.

Noct whimpered, unable to make any other sound. The criminal sneered and laughed at him before he eased up.

After a long, twisting and turning ride that seemed to last for hours, a black cloth was pulled over the prince's head. The car opened and he was thrown over the man's shoulder, taken down into a cellar beneath a bolted door, and locked into a cage after the cloth was removed. The cage was just big enough to hold a large dog standing up and the room was dimly lit and made entirely of concrete covered with dust and mold. No windows, and nothing else inside it except for cobwebs. And centipedes as long as rulers that scuttled on the walls and ceiling.

"Hello."

Another man was standing in front of the cage and looking down at him.

Noct tried to sit up against the bars of the cage and was met with more sardonic laughter. The man crouched down in front of him. "Just hold still and be a good boy and we won't hurt you."

Noct's eyes had been black with fear, but at the sight of the man who was behind all this, they flashed crimson red.

"Whoa, look at that. Did you see that?" one of the men who had been in the car asked the other.

"Shut up. Where's that camera? Get it ready."

The boss stood up and delivered a powerful kick to the cage, inches away from Noct's face. The prince tried to shift farther away from them and saw two of the three men aim weapons at him. One was a pistol and the other was a shotgun.

"Ah-ah-ah…We told you not to move, right? SO DON'T!"

Noctis's whole body shook as if he had been caught in the middle of an arctic storm without a jacket. His eyes burned and he shut them tight. He wanted to go home.

"_Daddy_…_help_…"


End file.
